What Is the 402(g) Limit? The 2026 Number and How It Works

The 402(g) limit is the IRS cap on how much an employee can contribute to a 401(k), 403(b), or SARSEP through salary deferrals in a calendar year. For 2026, the 402(g) limit is $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025. It applies per person, across all your plans combined, and covers pre-tax and Roth deferrals together. Catch-up contributions for those 50 and older sit on top of it.

By the About401K editorial team · Facts verified against IRS Notice 2025-67 and IRC §402(g) · Updated September 25, 2026

What counts toward the 402(g) limit?

Only your own elective deferrals count, meaning the money taken out of your paycheck because you told your employer to take it. Pre-tax deferrals and Roth 401(k) deferrals both count, and they share the single limit rather than getting one each (IRC §402(g)). If you split your contributions half pre-tax and half Roth, the two halves are added together against $24,500.

Several other kinds of money land in your 401(k) without touching this limit at all.

• Employer money. Matching and profit-sharing contributions are outside 402(g) entirely. They count toward the separate 415(c) limit instead, so a generous match never eats into your own room.
• Catch-up contributions. The $8,000 for those 50 and older, or $11,250 at ages 60–63, rides on top of 402(g) rather than inside it.
• After-tax (non-Roth) contributions. These are a different source of money with different tax treatment, and 415(c) governs them. Be careful not to confuse them with Roth deferrals, which do count here.
• 457(b) deferrals. Governmental 457(b) plans carry their own separate limit. That is why some public-sector workers can defer the full amount to a 403(b) and again to a 457(b) in the same year.

The limit is per person, not per plan

This is the sentence that catches people out, so it is worth sitting with. The $24,500 belongs to you, not to any one 401(k) account. If you work two jobs, or change jobs in the middle of the year, your 401(k) and 403(b) deferrals at every employer are added together and measured against one limit.

Each employer’s payroll system only knows what it withheld. Your old job’s recordkeeper has no way to see what your new job is doing, and the new one cannot see your old pay stubs. Nobody is watching the combined total except you, which is why job changers who defer aggressively at both employers are the most common source of excess deferrals.

What happens if I go over the 402(g) limit?

You have what the IRS calls an “excess deferral,” and the fix runs on a hard deadline. This is fixable, and the fix is not complicated, but it does have to happen on time.

• Corrected by April 15 of the following year. You notify the plan, and it distributes the excess plus the earnings on it back to you. The excess is taxable in the year you deferred it, and the earnings are taxable in the year they are distributed. That is the end of it, with no penalty attached.
• Not corrected by April 15. The excess is taxed twice, once in the year you contributed it and again years later when it finally comes out in retirement. There is no later fix and no way to appeal. The double tax is the penalty.

Note that April 15 here is a fixed date for this correction. Filing an extension on your tax return does not move it.

• ☐ Add up both W-2s as soon as they arrive, using box 12 code D for pre-tax deferrals and code AA for Roth deferrals.
• ☐ Compare the total to your limit for the year, which is $24,500 for 2026 unless you were catch-up eligible.
• ☐ Pick one plan to correct through. When the excess came from two employers, the choice is yours. Most people pick the plan they have already left, or the one with the worse investment options.
• ☐ Call that plan and ask for a “return of excess deferrals” under section 402(g), using those words. Tell them the dollar amount and the tax year.
• ☐ Ask them to include the earnings on the excess, which the plan calculates for you.
• ☐ Request it well before April 15, ideally in January or February. Plans need processing time, and the deadline is the date the distribution must be made, not the date you ask.
• ☐ Watch for two Forms 1099-R the following January, one for the excess and one for the earnings, and keep them with your tax records.
• ☐ If April 15 has already passed, stop and talk to a tax professional. The double taxation cannot be undone, but you want the reporting handled correctly from here.

One wrinkle is worth knowing before you call. When you over-deferred across two different employers’ plans, a plan is permitted to distribute the excess, but it is not required to do so. Most cooperate without any trouble. Acting in January rather than in April gives you time to try the other plan if the first one says no.

402(g) vs. 415(c): the two limits people confuse

These two limits get mixed up constantly, partly because both are quoted as “the 401(k) limit” depending on who is talking. They measure different things.

The gap between them is $47,500 in 2026. That gap is the room employer contributions fill, and where plans allow after-tax contributions, it is also the room the mega backdoor Roth strategy uses.

402(g) limit by year (2010–2026)

If you are amending an old return or checking a prior year’s excess, here is the limit for every year back to 2010.

The limit is indexed to inflation in $500 increments under IRC §402(g)(4). That rounding rule explains the pattern in the table, where the number holds flat for two or three years and then jumps, instead of creeping up every year.

Where you’ll see “402(g)” in real life

You will usually meet this limit through your payroll system rather than through the tax code. When a recordkeeper such as Fidelity stops your contributions and posts a message saying “402(g) limit reached,” it means exactly one thing. You have hit $24,500 for the year, your deferrals pause for the remaining paychecks, and they normally restart automatically in January.

Behind the scenes, plan administrators run a 402(g) compliance check after year end. The numbers they check against are the ones printed in box 12 of your W-2, where code D is pre-tax deferrals and code AA is Roth deferrals. Those are the same figures the IRS matches against the limit, and the same ones you should use in the calculator above.

Related reading

• All 401(k) contribution limits for 2026
• Catch-up contributions: age 50+, the 60–63 super catch-up, and the new Roth rule
• The 415(c) limit on total annual additions

Sources: IRS Notice 2025-67 · IRC §402(g) · IRS: 401(k) contribution limits · IRS COLA table